Tuesday, October 28, 2008

UPDATE OCTOBER 29, 2008Rafael Nadal defeated Florent Serra 6-2, 6-4and will play Gael Monfils October 30, 2008 not before 1:45 p.m. USA ESTIn Paris that is 7:45 p.m.I'll have to post pictures of the Round 2 match with Serra in the near future.Please go to The schedule for more information

Anyone with tickets for Wednesday at the BNP Paribas Masters can consider themselves very lucky indeed. Be it for the day or for the night session, they will be witnessing star-studded tennis at its best. From 11 am until late at night, a panoply of seeds will be battling it out for a third-round berth.

Some of the best will be saved til last, with the No2 and 3 seeds taking part in the night session. At 7.45 pm (CET), Roger Federer will make his grand entrance onto Centre Court to face Robin Söderling, who won last week’s tournament a few hours south of Bercy in Lyon. While the Swiss maestro leads 7-0 in the head-to-head and won a title himself last Sunday – at his home tournament in Basle for the third year in a row – the Swedish indoor specialist will certainly be no pushover.

Another pretender to the BNP Paribas Masters throne will follow Federer onto centre stage – Andy Murray. The Scotsman has very much been the rising star of the second half of the season, winning at Madrid and Saint Petersburg in the last two weeks to go with his title in Cincinnati and US Open final. Facing American Sam Querrey, the world No4 should not be in any danger.

The highlight of the afternoon will be the singles debut of world No1 Rafael Nadal, who according to his coach and uncle Toni Nadal is currently suffering from fatigue (though this was not apparent when he partnered Juan Monaco to doubles victory earlier on Tuesday…). He will face lucky loser Florent Serra – a man whom he has beaten twice this year dropping only five games over five sets in the process. The Frenchman will have the crowd behind him and has vowed to play a more aggressive style of tennis on Wednesday.

The crowd will have other home favourites to fete on Wednesday, with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (No13) facing wily Czech Radek Stepanek and rising star Gilles Simon (No10) who will take on Russia’s Igor Andreev in a match crucial to the Frenchman’s hopes of making the end-of-season ATP Tennis Masters Cup.

David Ferrer (No5), James Blake (No11) and Stanislas Wawrinka (No12) all hope to squeeze into the top eight and secure a berth for Shanghai and all of them will be playing on No1 court tomorrow. Opening the proceedings back on Centre Court at 11am will be reigning champion David Nalbandian (No8), facing Germany’s Nicolas Kiefer.

Surprises may well be in store on Wednesday but one thing is for certain – there will be some incredible tennis from a host of top names.

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About Me

I love my life. I love where I live. And I am passionate about my passions. I love to dance. Necessary to live: music, piano, singing, writing, acting, painting.
I have been fighting for and supporting the arts all my adult life. Since 2004, I have been working with other activists to end the Darfur genocide.
I have traveled to Europe many times since my early twenties. Places I have been: many USA states including Hawaii, Montreal, Canada, Barbados, France, Spain, Luxembourg, England, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Greece and Germany - and have wonderful memories.
My last trip was in May - June 2013 to Spain.
I would like to travel to Europe and Kyoto, Japan.
I love the southwest where I have visited Hopi, Navajo, Zia and San Idlefonso potters.
Life is exciting and I intend to live it full-out to the end.
B.S. and M.M., both in music

Genocide is not only a word,
it is crying of the whole human race.
There is nothing redeeming about being silent
when speaking up is the humane thing to do.
The honor and integrity of the human race is at stake.

"...And these for whom life has no repose, live at times in their rare moments of happiness with such strength and indescribable beauty, the spray of their moment's happiness is flung so high and dazzingly over the wide sea of suffering, that the light of it, spreading its radiance, touches others too with its enchantment..." Hemann Hesse STEPPENWOLF